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TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 



Haven finds ;i tl;i( lock in the water;;. 



Flies up to the sky. 



Enters the body of a child in heaven. 



M 



Raven finds a rock in the waters. 

 He makes land. 



He creates man and woman of clamshells. 

 He sends them to Skidegate. 

 Flies up to the sky. 

 Plays with a child in heaven. 

 He steals the child, the sun, and the fire- 

 drill. 



He gouges out the eyes of people in 



heaven. 

 The people hold the child ; it drops from 



their hands and falls into the sea. 

 The child (i. e., Raven) goes to a house in 



the bottom of the sea and is given the 



power to create land; he makes 



Queen Charlotte Islands and the 



mainland. 



(Break in story.) 

 Raven enters the body of chief's child at 



Rose Point. 

 The chief's son (i. e., Raven) makes love 



to the chief's sister; the chief's neph- 

 ew makes love to the chief's wife. 

 The chief's wife and her son Raven are 



sent back to her brother at Skide- 

 gate. 

 They find a sea otter, and Raven makes 



fire. 

 Raven behaves badly in the house of his 



mother's brother. 

 Whales strand. 

 The child makes love to his uncle's wife. 



Raven gets from his uncle's wife the 

 "white thing" that he owns. 



The uncle makes a deluge, and Raven 

 flies up to the sky. 



He drops down, returns to his uncle, and 

 is adopted by Qingi. (Here begin 

 his migrations.) 



Shearing the myth of repetitions, we may summarize the main 

 incidents in the following order: 



1. Raven is the child of Flood-Tide Woman, 



2. Who is sent back to her brother by her jealous husband. 



3. He makes love to his uncle's wife, 



4. Who causes a deluge. 



5. When the earth is covered by water, Raven flies up to the sky. 

 G. He returns. 



While Raven flies down with these 

 things, the child drops down. 



The child is carried by fishes to Rose 

 Point and grows up in Raven's house. 

 The child makes love to Raven's wife. 



The chief's wife and the child who had 

 dropped down from heaven escape; 

 he takes along sun and fire-drill. 



They find a land otter, and the youth 

 makes fire. 



Whales strand. 



Raven's wife and the youth have a 



daughter at Skidegate. 

 The man whom Raven had created out of 



a clamshell elopes with the daughter 



and liberates the sun. 

 The man who has abducted the girl 



makes a chain of arrows and escapes 



to the sky. 

 He takes a woman who is bathing in the 



sky and drops down with her. 



